On Monday, we hosted a TweetUp under the hashtag #ndsrapps to discuss the NDSR application process. Current and past residents, AAPB NDSR host mentors, and a/v archives professionals convened to answer questions from prospective residents and talk about the NDSR experience.

For prospective applicants, we’d like to highlight some of the thoughts and advice that came out of the discussion:

– when figuring out your preferences for host choices, think about your interest in the organization and what you want to be learning, as well as the strengths that you already have. Hosts aren’t limited by resident’s preferences, but they will take them into consideration when determining their top picks.

– don’t be daunted by a list of tech requirements for a residency, and don’t let imposter syndrome scare you off a project you really want to work on; many past residents (and hosts!) had limited experience before starting on their projects or current positions.

– as current CUNY resident Dinah Handel said in one Tweet, “the point of the residency is to learn new skills in a safe environment” — the most important criteria for an AAPB NDSR position is a willingness to learn on the job!

Other topics included thoughts from past residents on career transitions after NDSR, discussion of the online or video project, and questions about what kind of material the residents will be dealing with at host stations, among other things. You can read the whole TweetUp as a storify here.

Also, while we were Tweeting about tech in the residency, one prospective resident caught a tech issue of our own on the application form! Thanks, Molly – the bug that prevented applicants from filling out their top three preferences should be fixed in the new version of the form, which you can find on our Resident Application page.